By Nadia Dreid
Law360 (December 17, 2019, 8:15 PM EST) — Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida’s rules barring agents from selling insurance policies offered by other companies should not be shielded from antitrust scrutiny, despite a Florida federal judge’s ruling to the contrary, the Eleventh Circuit heard this week.
Oscar Insurance Co. told the appellate court Monday that a Florida federal judge erred when he ruled that the McCarran-Ferguson Act granted the insurance giant immunity from its smaller rival’s suit.
“McCarran-Ferguson’s exemption from antitrust liability applies only when the defendant’s challenged practice constitutes the ‘business of insurance’, and only when the challenged practice is not a boycott, coercion, or intimidation,” Oscar said in its brief. “Neither requirement is met here.”